Ikoku Nikki - Vol. 11 Ch. 54 - page.54

[z3c9]

a sweet ending to a really great story. I have a feeling I'll re-read this one someday.

 

[CommonTruth]

I cried, of course.

I've never read any manga quite like this. Of course I'd love more, but "wrapping up loose ends" and so on has never been what this series is about. Life is all loose ends. The way this story explores that is what makes it special.

It would be wonderful if this was licensed in English one day so I could have it on my shelves, but for now, thank you to everyone on the scanlation team from bringing this manga to us.

 

[superlark]

Ah.... Makio, you did it, you conveyed your feelings 🥹🥹🥹🥹

I'll miss Makio and Asa!!!!

 

[Pyoro]

Fantastic manga, and a beautiful end - well, I might have been slightly disappointed, but then that poem came in to save the day ...

... anyway. I'm not saying I knew this would be the final chapter, because I didn't, but I think it was fairly obvious this was going to end soon. There were more parallels being drawn to early chapters, and characters started to look towards and talk about the future (college, career ...) more and more over looking back at their pasts, a clear indication where the manga was heading.

And I disagree that there's much in terms of loose ends. Obviously it's not like a "defeated the resurrected evil demon lord and now everybody lives happily forever" sorta end, but if we go through the characters, I don't think there's much more needed for their arcs.

Makio is Makio and was always likely to stay Makio, but she understands herself much better and learned to better recognize where she's struggling and how to deal with that, even if it's not magically "fixed" (the entire point of the manga of course being that there is nothing to "fix"). She figured out how to be with her ex-boyfriend, she figured out how to be there for Asa and how to put in a little bit of extra effort when necessary.

Ex-boyfriend is the same; he figured out much better how to be who he is and how Makio works and what her hang-ups and his own burdens are. Sure, you can say, "okay, but what happens if he finds a steady girlfriend? Or could his and Makio's romance go back to being more than sex friends? Or ..." - but that'd all be additional arcs. Their relationship at this point is very settled in what it is.

Lawyer-government-whatever dude is similar in that he's of course not magically fixed his issues but he's learned better what his strengths and weaknesses are and how to use that and mitigate any potential issues his personality might cause. We see in the last chapter how that's different from Asa's dad who clearly had similar problems with connecting to people but failed to ever get to find a way to deal with that (or didn't get the chance; maybe one day he would have).

Emily stays friends with Asa and seems fairly settled in her sexuality; I don't think there could have been more there. Obviously her occasional raging at society isn't going to be solved by some unicorns waltzing into Japan and fixing everything.

With Asa it's the same; of course it's not like all her anxieties will magically disappear but when in the beginning she was preoccupied with how to deal with her grief; trying to figure out whether her parents really loved her, where she stands with Makio, etc., she's looking forward now as you'd expect of a young person about to start college and career. Given that she's the main character her going from looking backward and overcoming that burden to be able to look forward again is about as conclusive as it can get for a (of sorts) coming-of-age story.

Even the minor characters generally were given some sort of direction for them to go to. I don't think there could have been much more than that; or if there was, I don't really know what I could have been.

 

[MikeShoemaker]

While it was a fine ending, I'm sad to see it end. Setting my month around Ikoku Nikki releases I enjoyed very much. Though, I'd rather this than it become a bloated, unrecognizable mess. Here's hoping for more from Tomoko Yamashita.

Thanks very much for the translations.

 

[Submarina]

Incredible ending. It feels riveting to see Makio develop from a lone wolf who takes in her hated sister's child on a whim (and tells her she won't love her) to the author of the poem at the end of the manga. For her to write that she would be happy to be the anchor of Asa's ship - happy to be forgotten and in the ground, because Asa's daybreak is now hers too - shows that she has truly become Asa's parent. It doesn't feel rushed, unrealistic, or cheesy. Just perfect and full of very human missteps. I admit I didn't have high hopes for this manga, but it has outshined all of my expectations.

 

[Bighomer]

Good to see this ended. I felt like it dragged on for a while now.The quality stayed the same, but it didn't have the pull it had on me in the early chapters. Great series!

 

[crimony]

the poem at the end was very sweet. i wonder if this ending feels less abrupt if you reread it knowing it's ending in 54 chapters (it's very slice of life, after all, and i wonder how you 'end' a slice of life without it feeling abrupt? i haven't read very many).

i also think the ending could've just capped off with the poem and a few extra panels in the present rather than show us a time skip (though i like that the mangaka kept asa's appearance out of view). i dunno, it would feel more poignant with the beautiful uncertainty of the poem that way. the point is that we love each other even when we don't know where it's going, so a time skip feels like it's undercutting that a bit.

 

[areticentreader]

i love how this series was just a glimpse into a time in someone's life, which means there are plenty of aspects we didn't get to see and plenty of stories we won't see finished

 

[bensabo]

This is so well written from start to finish. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I loved the poem at the end.

 

[yourisekaiwitchess]

As someone who's dreaming of leaving ny parents house, and finally did, that poem about ship really hit me. "Ah, so that's what my mom want to say but couldn't word it out". Beautiful midnight tears, thank you for this journey

 

[totallytotally]

https://www.shodensha.co.jp/ikokunikki/
Live action movie announcement.

 

[xwenqix]

beautiful, a re-read would definitely benefit a series like this

 

[ThisWaSMyName]

God I feel so empty now, one of a kind series

 

[GuiltyPixel]

Whoever translated that poem did an amazing job. I want to write it out and print it to hang somewhere. Fantastic manga, fantastic translation. Thank you.

 

[JadeSabre]

This was an incredible manga! Thank you so much for translating all of it.

 

[sotokouya]

ngl i still felt it's rather unsatisfactory but this is one of those that i would put up there as one of the best "it's about the journey" example"

 

[noblesslayer]

I'll just cry myself to sleep, I guess. An absolute masterpiece if you ask me, I do get why some people might have found the ending to come a little too fast but it hit all right spots for me.

 

[weary_aery]

this genuinely changed my life. i don't think a manga has impacted me the way this has. a story like this stays with you, and this definitely will. thank you